George Leo Haydock, on Esth 8:11

“And the king gave orders to them, to speak to the Jews in every city, and to command them to gather themselves together, and to stand for their lives, and to kill and destroy all their enemies with their wives and children and all their houses, and to take their spoil.”

“Spoil. This was retaliating, as they were to have been treated in like manner. (Calmet) — Such were the barbarous customs of the country. (Haydock) — It might not still be lawful thus to involve the innocent with the guilty, though the king did not ill in allowing the Jews to stand up in their own defence, 2 Kings xxi. 6. Some think that they were only to prevent the execution of the former edict, which could not be revoked. See chap. iii. (Calmet) — A form of trial was observed, chap. xvi. 20. (Menochius)”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.